History Folio #1, Section 3: 1965 – 1966, Page 125

'
A charge of negligence was issued against the
captain and pilot of the ill-fated "SS Santa Maria"
by the Coast .Guard at the end of a five-day hearing
yesterday.
The charge, if substantiated, could result in the revocation or suspension of the marine licenses- of Capt. Austin
P . Tomter, 63-year-old skipper of the "Santa Maria" and
--------------~ of his pilot, Cllpt. Robert Kamdron.
J '•'
~City's
The charge was issued yesterday against •the two captains
by Cmdr. ltoi*r\ F. Hornbeck,
officer in chard of ' the Coast
Guard Marine Inspection Office
here.
Port Position Backed
"I have a feel for J'Oill'
~It! on,'' Jl'ederal Marit ·
Commissione~ Geor&"e Henry
Hearn told the City Council
yesterday concerning the port
berthing- dispute with the
· The dispute rev o I v e s
'lround a pending agreement
be ween Sea-Land Service,
Inc. and the port giving SeaLand preferential berthing
nghts two da.)1i a week in
!l'eturn for a guaranteed annual minimum payment. The
MJ!itary Sea Transport Servlce has filed a letter of question with the FMC maintaining the !';ea;Land agreement
-wouili hamper MSTS operatio:u:.
Hearn reccmmended that
the city present its case to .
the FMC !in aa irtfo~mal manne< prior to the scheduling of
any hearing. He said a letter
to
commJSS!On
members
wou)d do the job.
THE HEARIN~ was initiated
by the Coast. Guard l11st Wednesday to fix responsibility in
the firey collision of the-Dutchowned tanker "Sirrah" and the
"Santa Maria" in Cook Inlet a
week ago.
He also suggested that a
.solution be sought before the
matter came up ,for hearing.
A final hearing on the matter
will be conducted by a civilian
hearing examiner in Anchorage
at 10 a.m., Nov. 12.
At the request of Mayor
Eimer Rasmuson, Hearn said
he would check with W'a9hil'lg- ,.
ton on the status of the dispute
-w he! her an official pro lest
ha;; been filed by MSTS.
The Coast Guard has hearing
examiners in Seattle, San Francisco and Lcs Angeles and "one
of these will probably be assigned to the case," according to
Commander Hornbeck.
"l feel very sympathetic."
Hc,.,rn said. '·We can't discourcge the one carrier which will
&' ve this service," hf added, refer•·in g to Sea-L
CMDR. HORNBECK pointed
out "this does ~ot necessarily
mean the Coast Guard has now
concluded that the sole fault
of the collision lies with the
officers of the Santa Maria.
Port
Cowmi ·
Ch airman
Martel)s ~
jhat without "our cotnmon
hier (SeaLand),
the
port
wlil
not
pay for
1
, it, elf."
!WJliy
AT PRESE"'T, MSTS vessels
I call in port about once a month,
according . to port operations
/
manager Don Walters. MSTS
has discontinued dry cargo
shipments and its tankers use
the petroleum-oil-lubricant fa- 1
cility which is not included in ·
the Sea-Land agreement, Walters added.
(
If a hearing i~ finally held,
Hearn said he- would try to arr~ nge to have it in Anchor
e.
It would be conducted by a
hearing examiner and would
not be befo;e t e whole commission , he ~·
Hearn also d,scu>sed the p ro- ~
pr.sed FMC rale schedule inves ~ Alaska trade .
tigation of
He termed
aska shipping
along with Puerto Rico shipping
the "big problems" in coastal
freight services. He estimated
that the study would lake from
10 months to a year.
"The three-man Marine Board
of Investigation which investi' gated the casualty must first
submit its repaft< ~ tha Commandant of the Co'ut Guard for
review and appiW.Jl. After this,
the findings of f~ conclusions,
and recommendations of the
board will be made public, in
addition to the remarks of the
commandant," he said.
1
Concerning the officers
charged with negligence, the
Marine Board apprised the 17th
Coast Guard District commander, Rear Adm. George D. Synan,
that there "appeared probable
cause for preferment of charges
against the above two licensed
officers."
Admiral Synon referred the
matter to the Officer in Charge
Marine Inspection, in Anchor~ge for administrative processing.
HERE TO INVESTIGATE COLLISION \ . be•
Two officers with the 17th Coast Guard District, Capt. R. J. Fug·
~ant
marine safety officer, and Cmdr. Dan Rayacich, officer in char
marine
inspections, 110. o~er details prior to .the op:,:q~¥. . of board _of invest!
·on hearing on thlrc~swn of the tankers S1rrah ~ ~apta Mana. Cmdr. R. F. Hont·
beck, who ta- stationed in Anchorage, ~s al~~e board which started taking
testimony this afternoon.
101
Santa Maria CrewTnen· Testify
On Collision Of Oil Tan irs
Crew members oo the Am.eri- inspection officer and port cap- Sea-Land Inc. vessel departs
port officials indicated today.
can - registered Santa Maria tain for Anchorage.
were to be the first to testify Crew members of both vessels The Santa ~
anchorec:
on Monday's collision of two are to be called during the off Pt. Woron~£.
.
petroleum-loaded tankers as a course of the investigation, Ray- A San Francisco attome
U.S. Coast Guard board of inves- aciclt sa1d. The Sirrah crew is Gilbert C. Wheat,
ve
1 tigatipn opened its probe of the still aboard its .. J~essel,.. ex~ted here. to repres~
t!
Knik Arm accident today.
to dock late tfltll artei'JIQPn.
~ana along wt
la\1
The Santa Maria and the As the Sirrah lost an anchor frrm of Burr,
se.
r::
ttere9 Sirrah collided i~ the collision, the captain de- A Seattle at~r81J
Paul,
a
a ihlle from the Port of ~1ded , not , t; c~!).nce .movement of '1\Ie legal f1r . ~ersAnc
Monday aftemooa. m Tu~day s high wmds. 'f. h e Howard-LeGr~s,- ltl represe~t
Botilr
immediately swept tanker IS expected to move mto tile. Duteh ship in !be mveshby f 1
but the crew of the the Port of A_nchorage when the gatlon.
Sirrah was able to maneuver
their vessel from the turmoil
and put out the fire.
The hearing on the accident
was originally scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. but was postponed until 1 p.m. in order to
allow the board more time for
preliminary ~k.
Capt. R. Y. 'Fugina, merchant
marj.ne safety officer with the
17th COast Qaard District with
headquarters in Juneau, opened
the tnvegtigation with a state'llent outlining the purpose -of
~ sessiol\s which are expected
;o contin•umil Saturday.
The
board "'f inestigatl
ecording Co FuglllJ, is to investigate the circumstf!nc~~ of the collision in
order to detenniDe the possible
'!a use and the responsibility.
!<'ederal Maritime Commissioner Georg
earn has recThrough testimlmy, the board
ommended that the CHy of Anwm _ . inf<ntlJlion wward
chorage make Its position known
"preventing liriQ reducing futo the commission in the prefture'\~eDif ot.the type. The
erential berthing hassle between
board"atS!nfll! be- seeking "any
Sea-Land Service, Inc ., and the
evidence of Incompetency, misMilitary sP-<1 Transport Service.
conduct,
, and willHearn, meeting Monday afterf yjolati
"
noon with members of the city
board with
council and the port commisare Cmdr. \
sion, said he would check with
, district officer in
bis commission to determine the
estigations, who is
status of the disagreement.
also here from Juneau; and
l'he city has approved a coo.ICmcir. R. F. Hornbeck, m11rine
'tr~ct witb Sea-Land which includef> the preferential berthing
agreement. Thi;> part of ~~
contract is opposed by the mthtary which also seeks a preferential agreement at the Port of
Anchorage for military cargo
vessels.
"You are a party to the contract," Hearn said. "Your voice
should be heard."
Hearn said the city would be
informed if the military protest
. led to a commission hearing on
the preferential berthing question.
Should such
earing be set,
Hearn said, a commission examiner probably would come to
Anchorage to take testimony
locally.
· The commissioner said he felt
1
it would be better to resolve the
question without the need for a
· hearing which could cause con[ siderable delay.
- He also sketched in details of
~ the commission rate study now
. under way.
H said the study would take
"10 months to a year at the
~ earliest" to complete but that
- the commission planned to make
· reports on itS' findings as "it
- goes along. '
,
1
He termed domestic freight
1
rate~ to Al~a and Puerto
· Rico a "problem," then added
· that Puerto .Rico has the bene: fit of., more competition than
; Alaska ha~ enjoyed.
b£1
On Berthing
I
;Jv (': r
•
BIGGEST VESSEL~ tJE&:~~ir
AT\CITY'S DOCK TODAY
,
PORT ENGINEER John Strout checks the progress on construction of a giant ice bumper
whkh port officials hope will protect the
temporary petroleum-oil-lubricant facility
from the potentially damaging ice chunks
floated in by the tides. The bumper is over
100 feet long, weighs about 40 tons and is
made from surplus and donated materials.
It will be held in place by a half a mile of
steel cable.
(Daily , News photo)
The largest vessel ever to use
Port of Anchorage municipal
terminal facilities was scheduled to dock this afternoon.
Standard Oil's Chevron Traqsporter, 625 feet in length, witS
to tie up at the terminal. It
is one of five tankers sch~uled
to call at the pert the remainder
of this week.
Because of her length a n d
weight, the Transporter is onI o Ad i n g at the municipal
terminal rether than the petroleum dock. The tanker is 25 feet
longer than the terminal dock.
Th ~ 28,276-ton tanker w a s
built at Sparrow's Point, Mil.,
in 1950. Her total capacity is
210,012 barrels of fuel; she is
carrying 160,000 barrels of aviation turbine fuel on this trip. The
cargo was taken aboard at
-
I 0~
I
Aruba in the Netherlands West
Indies, according to port raeords.
1
Captain 0. Rolla Is the ObeYron Transporter's m!!Ster. l
Unloading operations continue
today o.n the Ufl:iop Oil's S~
Maria. Fuel Ia b$ng unlOffld
by )ighter from th6 vessel, d!\)2ag!!d in a coUW. last' w,et
with another tanUr.
'~'he~ ..standard Oil Janker Collil!r .~ to · tit the petro.
~·'* t.qgigbl .~\
, ~' i,I:IW ~tandard,
bound ,JC!J the~~ dock,
and fl'•co'ttl/1Nwth. Dakota,
bol,llldJollibe t~ ~ock, are
schedul~ to arrive F~tday.
The North Dakota will unload
~ tons ol ~ed cargo at
the terminl!lr• • ~ep transf~r. to the-. ~~I:Jiqck , to
- - - - - ---1 firuSh unloMi!Jgrsoobr. ~.h
Also scheduled to amve Friday is the state ferry Tustumena.
t